The hair of the head has been associated with beauty and social distinction. For this reason, a special importance is attached in the cosmetic area to hair care products such as rinses, conditioners, shampoos, conditioning shampoos and the like.
The primary function of a hair care composition is to cleanse the hair and scalp from soil without stinging or irritating the eyes and scalp. Hair soil includes natural skin secretions (such as sebum), skin debris, dirt from the environment and residue from hair-grooming products applied by the consumer. After accomplishing the cleansing action, the shampoo should not excessively remove the natural oil from the scalp and should leave the hair soft, lustrous and manageable while simultaneously providing a rich copious foam or lather. This has become a difficult challenge to meet and it is not surprising to find that considerable resource and effort have been directed towards the discovery and development of new ingredients that provide improved foam, viscosity, clarity and conditioning characteristics. The patent literature, cosmetic journals and formularies describe many such ingredients, however, they still do not provide all the answers to the problems encountered in making a totally satisfactory product.
It has now been found that the inclusion of a heteroatom containing alkyl aldonamide compound in a hair care composition of the invention, surprisingly provides improved foam, viscosity, clarity and conditioning characteristics. These findings are quite unexpected and have not been recognized or appreciated in the art.
The hair care compositions of the present invention may be in aerosol, liquid, gel, creme (cream), lotion, paste, granular, powdered, tablet or bar form. Included among the hair care compositions are rinses, conditioners, shampoos, conditioning shampoos, antidandruff shampoos and the like. However, the conditioners, shampoos, conditioning shampoos and antidandruff shampoos are the preferred compositions.